As a young woman I could eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted and yet always seemed to stay underweight.  I was literally a string bean at 5ft 8inches when I courted and married my husband.  So when I got pregnant and had my first born and retained 15lbs or so I wasn’t worried.  I had always been so thin, a little meat on my bones was actually welcome.  But baby number two, three and then four with the same story of keep an extra 10 lbs or so started to get my attention.  Throw in there adrenal fatigue, cortisol levels being messed up and questionable thyroid and the chub continued.

In my thirties when a routine exam showed some liver enzyme elevation, the nurse suggested if I lost a few pounds that would bring things right back to where it should be.  So began the beginning of trying several things to lose weight.  With exercise and dedication I did shave off 20lbs and was very happy. But, then with additional pregnancies the weight would creep back up. I would try this program, eating plan or exercise.  Using weight watchers I lost another 20lbs but got complacent when I hit the high end of the healthy weight goal for my height.

As I hit my 40th birthday I had my worst health crisis ever with adrenal fatigue (you can read more about that HERE).  My focus could not be on losing weight, but on getting healthy.  It was all I could do just to survive. The Lord used some AMAZING supplements to restore my health, and I was over the moon blessed. But, while these same products helped many people also lose weight on them, I did not lose but even gained a bit.  But, I was healthy again and that was blessing enough.

Eventually, When the weight kept creeping up even though I wasn’t having babies anymore I knew I had to get serious about addressing where I was at on the scale.  The problem was that I had tried so many things.  I had joined Curves, done pilates, walking, and had many plans for how I was going to exercise and they never stuck.  Over the years I had done the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (similar to paleo), Rubin Jordans eating program, Trim Healthy Mama, Calorie counting, Weight Watchers.  My bookshelves are full of books like The Flat Belly Diet and  I even looked into the Curves eating plan and the Zone diet.  Food combining plans, Eating whole foods, no sugar–you name it. And many things would be effective for a short time, help me lose a few pounds but they weren’t sustainable so I would lose some weight but yo-yo back.

Part Two coming Monday!